With the U.S. Capitol in the background, gun-control advocates protest against the National Rifle Association outside of the hotel where the NRA was having a news conference on Friday. / Cliff Owen AP

by Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

by Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

Gun-control advocates reacted with incredulity at the statements by Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, at his Friday press conference. LaPierre called for armed guards in every school in the nation and blamed violent media, video games, films and music videos, not guns, for violence in society.

"It was absolutely outrageous,' said Shannon Watts, who founded One Million Moms for Gun Control just five days ago. "They are about to see a tsunami of 84 million angry moms coming out at them. Angry moms like they have never seen before. We are going to do for gun control what Mothers Against Drunk Driving did for drunk drivers."

The Zionsville, Ind. stay-at-home mother of five was so angry and frustrated after the Newtown shootings that she started a Facebook page and website. Her group now has 8,000 members and 50 chapters. "Every day we get a request for 20 new chapters," she said.

Congress has been running scared of the NRA, "but the NRA only has 4 million members, she said. "Ask them in four weeks who they're more scared of, the NRA or a mom? It's going to be the mom."

"We're seeing ridiculous laws that are written to allow guns in our churches and our schools. It's time for the 84 million mothers in American to say enough," she said. She doesn't want to ban guns. "We understand about the Second Amendment, but it was written in 1791, before AK47s." America needs common sense, she said. "I can't buy an unlimited amount of fertilizer or Sudafed, but I can buy unlimited ammunition. Really?"

The national debate on gun control has taken off since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which killed 20 children and six adults. The NRA, usually a major voice in the discussion, was silent until Friday "out of respect for those grieving families, and until the facts are known," LaPierre said at the beginning of the news conference. "While some have tried to exploit tragedy for political gain, we have remained respectfully silent."

The NRA really doubled-down on its strategy of holding a hard line against any curbs on guns, said David Domke, a communication professor at the University of Washington in Seattle who studies political strategy and messaging. "I don't think the NRA has faced this kind of a difficult moment really in the last 20 years."

By his reading of the situation, the NRA knew it was going to have to pay a price but could decide whether to take a hit to its image or on policy. It chose to protect policy.

"They didn't want to start the conversation at the midpoint," he said. That will hurt them in the eyes of the public but also sends a message to the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. "They've contributed to them, they've gotten out the vote for them" now they expect help battling gun control, he said.

Domke isn't sure the strategy will work. He believes the heat on guns is only going to get stronger and the NRA is misreading popular sentiment, even among Republicans. "I think they'll end up paying both the image and the policy price."

Gun owner Waldo Jaquith watched the press conference on TV. He owns three guns and his whole family grew up with them. Every few years he considers joining the NRA. "But then they do something like this and they just look insane," he said.

As for LaPierre's suggestion that schools need armed guards, "I don't think I would send my child to a school that required an armed guard. There's no way. I'm not sure how that's different from prison," said Jaquith, who lives in Charlottesville, Va., with his wife and one-year-old son.

A Gallup Daily poll on Dec. 18 found that 53% of those surveyed thought increasing police presence at schools would be "very effective" in preventing mass school shootings such as the one that occurred in Connecticut last week. Fifty percent thought increased government spending on mental health screening and treatment would also be highly effective. Only 34% thought having at least one official at every school carry a gun would be highly effective.

Arming school guards failed at Columbine, said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, and native of Newtown, Conn. "The NRA plan, which cynically allows for the continued sale of the assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines marketed by its gun industry corporate donors, has already been tried, and it did not work."

His group noted that there were two armed law enforcement agents present at Columbine High School during the assault by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, which left 15 dead and 23 wounded. The guards "twice engaged and fired at Eric Harris in an effort to stop the shooting but were unsuccessful because they were outgunned by the assault weapons wielded by the two teens."

The NRA's response was typical, said Elliot Fineman, CEO of the National Gun Victims Action Council in Chicago. "They blamed the media, they blamed video games, they blamed movies, they blamed the president, they blamed everything other than mentioning any responsibility of the proliferation and easy access to guns."

LaPierre's position was that "we're in a nuclear arms race and we have to arm ourselves better -- and nothing about deterrents," Fineman said. But being armed isn't a guarantee of safety, he said. "Policemen carry guns and they get killed because of surprise or ambush.

The NRA isn't listening to America, said Jonathan Lowy, director of the legal action project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C. "The American people want to have a conversation about what are effective ways to prevent dangerous people from keeping military style weaponry off our streets and out of our schools. There's overwhelming national consensus on those issues."

The only appropriate response to the NRA press conference is to speak to the members of the NRA, "the overwhelming majority of whom support sensible gun laws like requiring a criminal background check of anyone purchasing a gun," he said.

"I just think that this was a missed opportunity to create another conversation at a higher level where the American people are right now," said Michael Steele, former Republican National Committee chairman and now a commentator on MSNBC. There were a number of issues that the NRA "could have brought to the table," he said. But Steele said in an interview that he was surprised "the top line message out of this press conference is 'let's put a gun in the hands of teachers in our classroom,' and I do not think that's where rank-and-file NRA members expected this to go to."